Brett, John

, a naval officer, of whose family we have
no account, was, soon after the rupture had taken place
|
with Spain, appointed commander of the Grampus sloop
of war. From this vessel he was, March 25, 1741, promoted to be captain of the Roebuck, a fifth rate of 40
guns, and immediately afterwards ordered to the Mediterranean from which he returned in May 1742, and in.
November following was removed into the Anglesea, of
the same rate as the former. In April 1744 he received
the command of the Sunderland of 60 guns, and next year
was on a cruise off the French coast, and in February captured a small French frigate richly laden, and with 24,000
pieces of eight in specie. Soon after his return into port he
was ordered ta Louisburgh, with some other ships of war, for
the purpose of reinforcing commodore Warren, who was
then engaged in the attack of that important place. Capt.
Brett arrived early enough before it surrendered to distinguish himself by his spirit and activity in the service.
He afterwards commanded the St. George of 90 guns for a
short time, but having been unwarrantably omitted in the
promotion of flag-officers, which took place in 1756, he
very spiritedly resolved to quit the service for ever, though
on his remonstrance, previous to his actual declaration of
this resolution, the admiralty-board, ashamed of having,
even for a moment, set aside a brave and deserving man,
offered him the rank of rear-admiral of the white, the same
which he would have been entitled to in the ordinary course
of service, if the partiality in favour of others had not
been exerted. His answer to this palliating proposal was,
“No rank or station can be, with honour, received by a
person who has been once thought undeserving or unentitled to it.” From this time he retired into private life,
and survived two long wars, in neither of which he waa
engaged. He died in London in 1785. He translated
two volumes of father Feyjoo’s Discourses, the one published in 1777, and the other in 1779; and in 1730, “Essays, or Discourses, selected from the works of Feyjoo.”
The late Charles Brett, esq. one of the lords of the admiralty, who died in 1799, and Timothy Brett, clerk of
the cheque at Portsmouth, who died in 1790, were brothers of capt. Brett. 1

1

Charnock’s Biographia Navalis.—Nichols’s Bowyer.—What is said in the
latter of his sailing with lord Auson, belongs to sir Piercy Brett, the subject of
the next article.

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